246 Your view of Terri

For now, there appears to be a compromise that might restore Terri's feeding tube. Now that Terri's face is finally on the national news, even with the condescending, sneers of the MSM commentators who don't know the facts, it is still surprising to me that when the human being is the most helpless, and can't speak for herself, her value and worth, as a creation of God and as a citizen, is determined by the beliefs of the guardian and not by U.S. law or a higher law. In Terri's case, her husband and guardian believes she has no value in her present condition. The people who know her best, her parents, disagree, as do thousands of other Americans. In other cases, it is a mother and an unborn child. If the guardian (the mother) believes the child growing within her will have an unpleasant, or unhealthy or inconvenient life, she determines the child's worth. She determines that her own wishes and values are of greater worth than the child's life.

I listened to Joni Eareckson Tada on the radio Friday. She and all the disabled community are watching this case very carefully, and she stressed again that thousands of people receive nutrition and hydration this way, and it is NOT considered an extreme or invasive life support method. It was reported that Bill Frist of Congress (R-TN) has talked to a neurologist who believes some of Terri's faculties could be restored--but her husband has prevented her therapy, for which he was awarded over a million dollars.

Terri is not aware enough to know the battle that roars around her. Satan has made sure that millions of others will be oblivious too. Terri may die, but now millions know how disabled and dying people are treated in hospice and nursing homes. I know a woman whose father was starved to death (no feeding tube was involved) his last days. Because he was in his 90s and very weak, it didn't take all that long. It was simply agreed between the staff and his wife (not the mother of this woman) to discontinue feeding him. When she (a nurse) and her sister (also a nurse) traveled across several states to be with him in Michigan while he died, they snuck into his room, disobeyed the orders that he wasn't to be fed, and gave him broth. He then immediately revived and knew them. His wife was furious, they were told to leave, and they weren't allowed at his final services when he died.

So, if you're thinking Terri is just one person, about whom the Congress shouldn't be concerned or pass special legislation, think again. Next time, it might be you, or your parent, or your married child.